Anybody wishing to help with the XAPSLL headcount of the homeless in Barcelona can sign up as a volunteer. To take part, participants simply need to be over 18, be willing and available on the night of 19 May and fill in a simple form. Volunteers will be organised into small groups and make their way around streets and parks all around the city.

This is the fourth annual headcount since the approval of the plan to combat homelessness in Barcelona 2016-2020, which has provided a framework for measures to tackle residential exclusion among the most vulnerable, ensure basic minimums for the whole population and develop comprehensive social services which prioritise personal autonomy.

Results of the headcount from 2018

The last headcount was conducted in 2018 and found 956 people sleeping rough, with 2,099 in municipal facilities and shelters operated by various social entities. The exercise involved 925 volunteers, divided into 287 groups, who spent four hours covering all the neighbourhoods in the city.

Regardless of the snapshot offered by the annual headcount, the key is still prevention and the shaping of supramunicipal policies to tackle the root causes, such as a system of guaranteed minimum incomes, a change in migration policies, rent capping and the revision of the use of empty flats.